Caught in Affairs with Superstar

Chapter 754: Chapter 511: Still Boiling

”Have you noticed that ever since you debuted, controversy has hardly ever stopped following you? Even after you’ve won Best Actress awards, both nationally and internationally, even though you’ve become the most outstanding among your peers.”

During a casual conversation with Zhou Lan, that’s what she said to Zhou Yun.

”It’s true that tall trees catch the wind, and rising to the top inevitably means stepping on others, but you seem to draw even more controversy than the average person.” Zhou Lan smiled, ”I wonder if it’s because you rose to fame too quickly, climbing too fast and causing everyone to panic, or if it’s because your opponents are more combative than others.”

Zhou Yun shook her head helplessly, ”I can’t be blamed for this.”

”Of course, in an arena, the strongest competitor’s strength becomes the very sin for which everyone targets him.” Zhou Lan spread her hands with a slight smile, exuding a calm and collected demeanor, ”But on the flip side, being targeted by everyone means that person has reached the top.”

”Hmm.”

”What we need to do now is to further widen the gap between us and them.” Zhou Lan said, ”Make it so that even if they want to catch up, they can’t.”

Zhou Yun shook her head, ”Sister Lan, these things are not important to me. Being stronger than others or weaker, I don’t really care.”

”Rowing against the current; if you don’t advance, you’ll fall back.” Zhou Lan said, ”I know you’ve always been reluctant to see everyone as your competitor, but that’s the reality. Only when your position is secure can you afford to not care about the competition.”

Zhou Yun sighed.

”We’ll never see eye to eye on this.”

”If we can’t agree now, let’s at least embrace our differences for the time being.” Zhou Lan smiled, ”Our shooting schedule for the second half of the year only includes ’Under the Grand Dress,’ which won’t take long to film, just about forty days. Shouldn’t we consider other projects? Wen Bing’s films are not scheduled to start production until next year.”

”How about the script written by Yao Yuanfeng? Aren’t New Shield and Song Chi’s company planning to co-develop it?” Zhou Yun asked.

”They’re also planning to start next year.” Zhou Lan said.

”That being the case, I really do have more free time in the second half of the year,” Zhou Yun said. ”The first half of the year was exhausting.”

”Indeed, you’ve filmed ’Behind the Scenes’, finished ’Falling Leaves’, went on to shoot Wen Bing’s ’Two Tigers’, and wrapped up ’Four Killers’.” Zhou Lan said, ”You’ve been incredibly busy, to be honest. You could actually take a good rest now, but I feel if you have too long a break, that would be a waste for you. You can’t wait until you want to act and then look for roles—that’s too reactive. ’Under the Grand Dress’ starts in August and can finish by September. Before August, you can take a proper rest. We won’t rush during this interval, but after ’Under the Grand Dress’ there’s a long gap. If you’re willing to become a regular guest on Variety shows, I can arrange a follow-up for you, but I think you definitely wouldn’t want to commit to being permanent.”

Zhou Yun nodded, ”I’m already getting a lot of exposure, and I want to minimize it a bit. Shooting commercials, recording one or two programs is fine, but being permanent for a whole season would result in constant high-intensity exposure. The audience won’t feel refreshed by my image. I think it’s better to appear occasionally to maintain some visibility, but not to be excessively present for a long time.”

”You’re right.” Zhou Lan nodded and then suddenly smiled, ”Yuehai sent me a script, asking me to make sure you read it before deciding whether to act in it or not.”

”Yuehai?” Zhou Yun looked surprised at Zhou Lan, ”Sister Lan, you’ve been building this all up, but here’s the key thing— I’ve already told you I don’t want to do Yuehai’s films anymore; I’m not happy with that company.”

But Zhou Lan shook her head and said, ”It’s a dual female lead script.”

She looked at Zhou Yun seriously.

Zhou Yun was taken aback.

”Are you suggesting Xiao Jing to act with me?” Zhou Yun asked.

Zhou Lan shook her head, ”I’m thinking of pairing you with Yuk Chu.”

Zhou Yun looked at her especially surprised, somewhat unexpected. Yuk Chu was not an artist under Chengqian Entertainment, and Zhou Yun did not expect Zhou Lan to make such a suggestion. She could understand why Zhou Lan would support Wang Jing but couldn’t understand why Zhou Lan would actively help Wang Jing to draw resources.